Collaborative Annotations

Objective:

We will be holding class discussion in the margins of our readings through collaborative annotations. This practice will allow us to come together around our readings and sharpen our critical reading skills. I will add resources, guiding comments, and questions to our readings, and I am asking you to contribute questions, answers. observations, and links that will enrich our understanding of these texts and provide a resource that you can refer to when you write your formal papers.

Strategy:

I have added videos, links, definitions, questions, and comments to our texts. You will read the required materials, clicking through resources and annotations as you go. Then, you will add written annotations yourselves.

Goal:

By collaboratively annotating course texts, you will practice the close reading and analytical skills we are working on in class, benefit from your classmates’ insights, and have a rich edition of the text to draw from for your own personal essays. You will also explore the digital publishing platform we are using, Manifold, gaining new digital skills that we will reflect on over the course of the semester.

Labor:

All students will make contributions over the course of the semester within the platform. Your participation in our class’s collaborative annotations, annotation reflections, and weekly journals comprises 20% of your grade. In order to get an A, you should contribute at least 5 substantive annotations and 2 replies to other's annotations to each of the required course texts. Your 5 annotations can either be new annotations or you can reply to the questions I pose. If you miss contributing to 1 or even 2 of the texts, you can still get an A as long as you participate meaningfully most of the time—meaning you share well thought-out and detailed ideas, demonstrate that you’ve really engaged with the material we are reading, and that you responded to your classmates' ideas thoughtfully.

• Annotations: There are different kinds of annotations that you can add yourself. All annotations should be around 100 words. Be sure to use our class’s annotation group when leaving your annotations. Some kinds of annotations you can write include:
  • Pointing out a detail of the text and describing what you think it means
  • Asking questions about the text’s meaning or an element that is confusing
  • Reflecting on the historical context (you may choose to include a link to another web page for this and describe the information)
  • Connecting to personal experience, class discussion, or other course materials
  • Answering other students’ questions or adding on to their observations

For technical questions, post to the Q and A Blackboard Discussion Board forum, or send me an email at kmichael@hostos.cuny.edu